This is an interesting idea. Unfortunately it is not one of mine, but I think all good ideas should be shared, so here it is. But before the idea comes out, let’s review some of the City Deal proposals on the table.

Build a busway from Cambourne to Grange Road in Cambridge, which doesn’t get you to the city centre, but hey, it’s a busway so it must be good. Even though the road capacity from Cambourne to Cambridge has tripled in the last few years, going from a single lane to three lanes in each direction. Plenty of space for buses on the road there.

Remove lots of front gardens and build a bus lane or two down Histon Road to help move the current ‘B’ service from the busway, and the number 8 bus from Cottenham to the city centre. This bus lane would help the current seven buses an hour get from Histon to Cambridge quicker. A whole two minutes quicker.

The idea was simple. Take the money for the “rural” parts of the Cambourne busway and build a busway from central Histon to Huntingdon Road through the NIAB site. That NIAB site is due to become another urban extension of Cambridge, so having a busway going through that would be significantly less disruptive than the west fields, the Coton nature reserve, and various other interesting places.

Just look at a map of what the ‘B’ service does today. It goes south-east-ish from Northstowe and then stops at Histon. It then continues away from Histon Road towards the CRC, but doesn’t actually stop at the CRC, turning right just before. Then it heads back on itself towards Histon Road. Why? It goes 1.4 km out of its way and then goes back on itself. A full 2.8km to travel a distance of about 1km. Even if the bus did 56mph along the busway, that is an effective speed of just 20mph.

Histon Road: We're not seeing the cycle lanes, how about you?

So, instead, have the busway fork near Chivers Way, perhaps with a new stop at the end of Villa Road, then go through the fields to pop over the A14 where the current accommodation bridge is now, and then hook up into Lawrence Weaver Road. It could then continue down Huntingdon Road, stopping at Castle Hill just like it does today.

And what would become of the existing busway to the south of Orchard Park? Well, that would make a great orbital busway and cycleway from West Cambridge and NW Cambridge over to the Cambridge North station, with stops at Darwin Green, Orchard Park, CRC, the science park, and the station. That service could even continue out on Madingley Road to Cambourne and onwards to St Neots.

That would leave Histon Road to become a great place, with segregated cycle lanes, plenty of crossings, and perhaps a little slow traffic at rush hour. A few more trees planted near the shops. The number 8 doesn’t need speeding up along Histon Road, it just needs to be made more direct in Histon. Just look at a map of the number 8 route, and imagine somebody trying to draw a straight line and having a sneezing fit at the same time. So please don’t put bus lanes down Histon Road without considering some reasonable alternatives.